"I Am From" by Anonymous (Northeast Correctional Complex, VT)

I from pain, I am from loss, but it created relief it created strength albeit going back and forth like yin to my yang, like night and day!

I hate reliving and bathing in the pain but seem to love it all the same. Why would I continue to allow myself to live in a world full of pain and loss? Why do I feel comfort in a place that offers none of it? It’s a trap it’s a trap that continues to lure me in. The strength my pain and loss has created is immense but still not strong enough to keep me from walking back to the other side. One day it will one day I will become strong enough to challenge my pain and loss head on and not falter.

Relief will come and flood me with strength. I want it so bad I can taste it. Yet I know deep down today is not that day. I need to grow I need to forget, to forgive, I need to let myself want to live again. I will live again.